intensity and HDV
by Pablo Hill
on
Jul 23, 2008 at 2:15:02 pm
I just bought a Intensity Pro video card for my 2x2.66 dual core Intel Mac OS 10.4.11 (Tiger) I have 3 X 500 GB HD raid 0 for video capture, 4 GB of Ram and use a Sony GV-HD700 as my deck and a Sony Z1U camera. I have been capturing HDV through firewire but now both the GV-HD700 deck and the Intensity card have HDMI connection. So I’m wondering if I should capture using it.
I originally got the card so I could get monitor out through HDMI, also because my clients usually ask me to output to a BETACAM SP, but basically because you can’t beat uncompressed SD and HD output for under than 400 bucks.
I know that if I capture trough HDMI my files will be a lot bigger, but will I have a better quality? What will my benefits be? If I cant afford uncompressed due to file size what other compressor should I use? I know I can use DVCPRO HD, but if I’m capturing Image at 4.2.0 why upgrade the image to a 4.2.2? or perhaps there is recompression when going into the Mac through the firewire and will have a much better image quality when capturing through HDMI? And last but not least is my setup enough and how will I be able to control the deck if I’m not connected using firewire? Or maby I should stick with firewire.
I know that’s a lot but I have this going around in my head for the last week and the web does not have an answer for such a specific setup.
I’ll be installing the video card next week when I finish the project I’m working on at the moment, I don’t what to mess up my computer in the middle of a job. But would very much appreciate to know all the facts before I start doing tests with it.
Re: intensity and HDV by Michael Palmer on Jul 23, 2008 at 3:02:20 pm
The benefits of using HDMI is the deck does the decompression from 1440x1080 with hardware in real time to an uncompressed 1920x1080 4:2:2 signal. It is this HDMI hardware that makes decisions of what to interpolate filling in the color space while also using an error correction control fixing any tape dropouts that is not present with native HDV firewire captures. You will be able to transcode completely digital to many different codecs that include intra-frame DVC Pro HD as you asked about and yes there are files size differences with every codec so you need to consider alternative storage for the needs of the codec you choose. If you shoot good HDV you can basically use it now as whatever you need it to be. The Intensity Pro card will also help you monitor HD in a traditional manner with a separate viewing monitor, and I believe there may be calibration software to help with you dial it in now. You will need to use the DV downconvert option on the deck and setup the device control as Firewire DV and connect the firewire from the deck to the Mac if you want the original timecode with the video.
